In some conventional manufacturing, labor and processes may be reliant on manual labor and oversight due to material inconsistencies, material characteristics, article shape, article size, article durability, and/or other such properties of an article being manufactured. For example, in some industries manufacturing articles at least partially composed of wood, the material inconsistencies of the wood may lead to inefficient and/or error prone manufacturing processes. Hence, characteristics of a manufactured article and/or characteristics of one or more materials used in manufacture thereof may lead to manufacturing inefficiency and/or errors.
As a particular example, in the cooperage industry (i.e., the manufacture of wooden barrels), wooden staves of a barrel may vary dimensionally (e.g., width, length, depth, etc.) as well as structurally (e.g., the grain of the wood may vary). Such inconsistencies in the wood may present issues when handling and/or processing barrels. Therefore, in some conventional barrel manufacturing, labor and processes may often be reliant on manual labor and oversight. In turn, manufacture of the barrels may be inefficient and/or error prone. In particular, machinery used in processing wooden barrels may function incorrectly, handle the wooden barrel in such a way that the barrel is damaged, and/or completely destroy a wooden barrel. Other types of materials may present difficulties in handling and manufacture.
Therefore, a continuing need exists in the art for improved article handling and manufacturing processes, apparatuses, and systems.